The Best Chickpea Salad Recipe
The Best Chickpea Salad Recipe – my favorite tomato cucumber salad with chickpeas and light dressing. Simple to make, nutritious and delicious. Pair it with chicken kebabs, pork chops or burgers for a complete meal.
The perfect make ahead cold salad, packed with fresh veggies and protein rich chickpeas. More filling than a regular tomato cucumber salad.
Chickpeas are the same as garbanzo beans, so this salad could be called Garbanzo Bean Salad, if you’d like to.
I’ve shared with you a Mediterranean Salad With Spicy Roasted Chickpeas recipe and it is one of my favorite lunch salads, that I make at home quite often.
But today’s chickpea salad recipe is a bit different. No lettuce, roasted red peppers or feta cheese.
Instead, the best chickpea salad recipe is made with canned chickpeas, flavorful tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, sweet red onions and crunchy green peppers.
Cut veggies into bite sized pieces, add the drained Garbanzo beans and drizzle with the simple and delicious salad dressing.
This chickpea salad recipe is great for picnics, potlucks and summer gatherings.
Chickpeas (Garbanzo beans)
Chickpeas are a type of legume rich in protein and fiber.
The most common type has a round shape and a beige color, but other varieties are black, green, or red.
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Source: Healthline.com: Chickpeas are a great source of fiber and folate, and they’re also low in calories. They can help reduce blood sugar, decrease blood cholesterol and improve gut health.
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I often use canned chickpeas to make my favorite Creamy Roasted Garlic Hummus or Chickpeas and Kale Quinoa Power Bowls . Chickpeas can also be used in soups, like this Creamy Tomato Chickpea Soup.
Chickpeas also find their use in healthy desserts like these Flourless Chocolate Muffins.
For more recipe inspiration, check out my 33 Recipes With Chickpeas.
Cooking your own chickpeas from dry:
I rarely do it, because even if I use a pressure cooker, it still takes some time and effort, so I just get canned chickpeas.
To cook chickpeas from dry, you need to soak them in cold water overnight. Then drain and cook in the Crock pot, Instant pot or on the stove top.
Here are the approximate cooking times, depending on what method you choose:
- Slow cooker – 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low
- Pressure Cooker (Instant Pot) – 1 hour on high pressure
- Stove top – simmer for 2-3 hours, or until done
Ingredients for the best chickpea salad:
Salad ingredients:
- Tomatoes – any kind, I like cherry tomatoes, that are cut in half
- Cucumbers – I usually use English or Persian cucumbers. You can peel them or leave them unpeeled.
- Red onions – I love the pop of color that these bring in salads and the slightly “milder” flavor, compared to yellow onions.
- Green Peppers – fresh and crunchy, perfect for this salad.
- Canned Chickpeas – you can remove the skins, if you’d like to. If you are wondering if home cooked chickpeas could be used, the answer is yes. I rarely get to make these, even though they are pretty simple, but time consuming to prepare.
- Fresh parsley – you can substitute with cilantro or even add dill
Dressing:
For a salad like this, I just season it with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and oregano (optional). I don’t even call this a dressing, but in fact it is.
- Extra virgin olive oil (Regular olive oil, vegetable, avocado or grape seed oil could be used).
- Lemon juice (or white wine vinegar)
- Salt (Table salt, sea salt or Himalayan could be used)
- Oregano (optional)
What other ingredients can you add to this salad?
- Avocados – add more healthy fats and soft texture to the salad.
- Feta Cheese – pairs well with the rest of the ingredients, but make sure you don’t add too much of it, since the flavor and saltiness will overpower the rest of the ingredients.
- Roasted red peppers, instead of fresh green peppers
- Green or yellow onions, instead of purple onions
- Tuna – canned tuna can be added to this chickpea salad recipe
Can this salad be made ahead?
While I never use tomatoes in “make ahead salads”, this particular recipe is an exception.
The reason why I don’t think tomatoes work for salads that are made in advance is because once cut, their juices run out (especially if you add salt to them), they get soft and soggy and unpleasant to eat.
In the best chickpea salad recipe we have ingredients with different textures, so soft tomatoes are not an issue for me. This is why this salad can be made up to 2 days in advance.
Keep in the fridge in an air tight container.
More easy salad recipes:
The Best Chickpea Salad
Ingredients
- 1 English cucumber — peeled, quartered and cut into pie sized pieces
- 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes — cut in half
- 1 15 oz can chickpeas
- 1 small green pepper — chopped
- 1 small red onion — chopped
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley — optional
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp oregano
Instructions
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In a small bowl combine the dressing ingredients - salt, oregano, olive oil and lemon juice.
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Add the tomatoes, cucumbers, chickpeas, peppers and onion to a bowl. Pour the dressing on top.
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Add parsley.
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Toss to coat the vegetables with dressing.
I love this recipe so much! I added several shakes of red pepper flakes, and some minced garlic. The dressing is superb I used it as a side but took it a step forward with the leftovers and mixed it with several varieties of mixed lettuces, avocado and added some sliced turkey for lunch. It is a wonderful recipe and you can add or delete to your hearts content! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I use tiny cubes of cheese too !